10 Steps to Success Online

byMartin Maldenon4 January, 2009

I read a series of posts in a forum group yesterday which set out the steps people should take in order to achieve success in their online businesses. So I chipped in with my own views – which I’ve repeated here:

Take as much pressure off yourself as you can

In my experience, if your IM business is not properly funded the pressure to start making money becomes intense – very quickly. And when that happens you usually start making bad decisions.

So minimise the pressure on yourself by making sure your IM venture is properly funded. That can mean doing it part-time along side your day job until you start to build up revenue, or using a redundancy pay off to fund your new business, or using your lottery winnings.

Whatever you do, make sure you’re properly funded.

Set yourself achievable short-term goals that you have full control over

A goal that you have full control over is something like ‘Learn CSS this week’.

‘Earn $100 this week’ is not something you have control over (not total control, anyway) – so don’t set that as a goal.

Setting yourself goals over which you don’t have full control is setting yourself up for failure. Setting goals over which you do have total control, and achieving them on a regular basis, gets you into a successful mindset. And that’s the foundation for success.

Make sure that your short term goals all lead you towards your vision, or ‘why’

Set out your ‘why’ and stick it up where you can see it each day

Your ‘why’ is the reason why you want a successful online business. It could be to spend more time with your family, to become financially independent, to escape the rat race – whatever.

Times will get tough. You will get frustrated. You will feel like giving up.

Having your ‘why’ stuck above your computer screen will help you get past these roadblocks.

Make sure you’re making measurable progress each month

Do this by ensuring your short term goals are constantly moving you forwards. If you’ve learnt CSS make sure you’re doing new and more things with it each month, or learn something else – as long as it moves you forward in your business.

Trust your gut feel

If something doesn’t feel right it’s probably not.

Don’t do stuff in your business that you wouldn’t want to talk to your family about

Ultimately your online reputation is even more important than your offline one, because people are increasingly suspicious of online scams.

So create an impeccable online reputation, and keep it.

Don’t listen to the nay-sayers

Let me say that again: don’t listen to the nay-sayers. There will be plenty of them.

Some people (probably including some of your family members) will try to discourage you from doing anything new. They don’t want you to succeed. They will destroy your self belief and when the going gets tough you’ll quit.

Don’t listen to them!

Don’t get taken in by stories of mega success

Whatever stories you read almost certainly didn’t happen. Those that really achieve big success overnight (and they are exceptionally rare) are usually discreet and don’t talk about it – at least not publicly online.

Play to your strengths and strengthen your weaknesses

Honestly evaluate your weaknesses and find ways to strengthen them. This could include finding a business partner who has complementary strengths, taking a training course, or whatever.

Stay focused

Whether it’s on the niche you’ve picked for your site, or your tasks for the day, staying focused will get you to where you want to go. Losing focus will not.